Running Bear's November 2018 Coffee Shop


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Good morning. It's raining and 49.
My wife's dialysis machine just suffered an internal failure, and set off an alarm that would have woken the neighbors, if we had any within hearing. I may be driving my wife to the local dialysis center to finish her treatment, and we will have to have a technician come out to repair or replace the machine.
 
Good morning. It's raining and 49.
My wife's dialysis machine just suffered an internal failure, and set off an alarm that would have woken the neighbors, if we had any within hearing. I may be driving my wife to the local dialysis center to finish her treatment, and we will have to have a technician come out to repair or replace the machine.
Is your wife ok?
 
Early last week I had a revelation. I realized I had a problem. When I am home alone working around the house I can lose my temper. I get frustrated that my body won't do what I use to be able to do. Working over my head is the most frustrating for me. When I can't do what I want to or do things poorly because of my limitations I occasionally I lose my temper. Then I loudly yell out all kinds of "colorful" language.

The revelation came when I was working alone during the day. I had one of my fits and then quietly sat in my chair in the living room. In comes my oldest (7) beagle, Tucker. He slowly, apprehensively walked over to me with his head down and tail between his legs, my heart sank. Feeling sorry for myself turned to feeling sorry for Tucker. My rage had upset him, I felt terrible. Tucker is a rescue dog, he has put up with enough, too much stupidity in his life. He came to me for one of our daily hugs. It's not good enough to console him, I need to stop upsetting him.

I thought long and hard about this over the next few days. I realized when I am on a baseball field with the little guys In over 20 years I have never lost my temper, I don't even get mad, never, not even once. No matter what happens and believe me when I tell you I have seen some crazy stuff from other coaches, parents and spectators, even umpires. Nothing can upset me because I have to remain calm so that the players feel safe and remain calm.

I came up with an anger management technique. That I put to the test last weekend.

The sun from the large glass windows in my front door was glaring on my TV. I did not want to put a curtain on the door. It's some kind of cut glass and my wife loves it. The light it casts is a very pretty light on the hardwood floor, but not welcome on my TV. I decided to move my entertainment center. I knew it was going to be a big job, for me. It meant taking down much of my drop celling in the utility room in the basement under the living room and rerouting ethernet and coaxial cables. I thought "this will be fun working over my head". Perfect time to put my new plan in action.

When I pulled down the drop celling I saw it was much worse then I thought. To make matters much worse the cable/satellite installers that had been there previously over the years had left a tangled spaghetti mess of wires and cables. When I moved in there where 2 satellite dishes mounted in the backyard in addition to comcast cable wires. so that meant it was at least 3 prior installers.

The guy that installed my cable used some of the existing wire, add some and only made the mess even worse. Even though the old coaxial was sub-par and the one going to my master cable box/DVR and router was frayed! There were also way too many splitters and unions. No wonder I had some problems with the OnDemand service. We were also having problems when we had high demand for bandwidth. My kids/grandsons have nearly every device know to man.

The installer accomplished his goal, get in and out as quick as possible. His job looked great, everything that was visible was new top of the line cable. Below the surface it was atrocious! My blood was beginning to boil. The two things that upset me most; lazy and or stupid, this was both!

I had a roll of ethernet cable and terminal ends, but not enough coaxial cable. Now I had to go to home depot, Once I start a job I don't like having to go get parts. Going out wears my already low energy level down. I returned with the parts disconnected everything and proceeded to pull out nearly a dozen splitters and unions, hundreds of feet of wires and cable. I even pulled out a 36' RCA cable! I'm not exaggerating, I filled a 20 gal trash bag with the mess.

The only way to do this right was to start over. It took me nearly 4 hours to do a job that I estimated would be no more than an hour. The good news is our service works fantastic, our internet is faster than and more stable than ever and best of all, I did not have one of my fits!

I'm getting to the point, thanks for sticking with me. My new anger management technique is this; I imagine myself on a baseball field. When that fails to work instead of using "colorful" language in an angry tone, I sing "baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet", It works!

My goal now is to expand the use of my new technique to all things. Not only lazy and stupid cable installers, but politicians and anybody or anything else that upsets me.

After a hard look at myself I realized getting angry, being mean spirited and using colorful language makes me nothing more than a cry baby "female dog". May God, my beagles and anyone else I have upset, please forgive me.

 
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Legend has it an Irish immigrant who's name has been lost to history who was a skilled squirrel hunter shot British Major General Robert Ross mortally wounding him. Ross died a few hours later. The Irishmen was part of a group of skirmishers sent to slow the British advance. General Ross was ridding with an advanced guard. Believing they would be met with little resistance as they had encountered in their march on Washington DC.
https://www.thoughtco.com/war-of-1812-battle-of-north-point-2360812
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Battle of North Point. Photograph Courtesy of the US Army

My youngest grandson (9) went on a field trip to Fort McHenry yesterday. In hindsight I should have gone with him :)
 
Here some are some pictures from my grandson's field trip yesterday.
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The flag is a replica of the huge flag unfurled to say "good bye" to the British.
 
Terry - Sorry to read your post, Prayers for your wife and I hope that the failure is minor.
Wife is okay, the machine suffered a mental collapse, or something. After a rather tense phone call to the tech support people for the machine, and two calls to the dialysis people, they said we could stop the procedure for tonight, and resume tomorrow after somebody comes out and fixes the machine.
 
The 1971 Baltimore Orioles, 4, 20 game winners! That was a great pitching staff!
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I always liked the orange jerseys and still do, but not the orange pants. Hey it was 1971, things were much more colorful then.
 
Good Morning All. It's a chilly 43° and cloudy in this neck of the woods. The rain predicted for last night never materialized. Yesterday marked the first day since February that I had to use jeans instead of shorts! At least they still fit! That means that summer is over even though the yard is already covered in leaves. Need to scour the garden later today for any remaining peppers and tomatoes prior to the freeze predicted for tonight. First though is a trip to see an ENT doctor at 8:30 to see why my hearing comes and goes in one ear. Then the weekly grocery/beer trek, postponed from yesterday since the doc is just around the corner and everything is 30 miles away. Looks like Target and the Vitamin Shop are also on the list. Busy morning on tap. Have to bring in firewood this afternoon as well, that will be a daily chore for the next three months.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I worked only briefly on the fence. Mostly I added ground foam, trees, bushes and other landscaping to the section that's already completed. In a different area I added scenery materials along the ROW on the upper level "turnback loop". I am ready to add the fascia/fence there and want to complete the area before making it harder to access. Is the fence needed? I've used that loop between 1" and 2" of the layout edge for over two years now without a derailment/floor model, but the fascia is cheap insurance. The fascia will be 1" above the layout surface. That brings up a question. I am using 5" Masonite strips for this curved section. What color do I paint the inside? For variety in running trains and to free up a bit of room on the layout, I removed a unit Autorack train off the layout and on to a storage shelf. I have been using it to test clearances along all of the upper level trackage, including an approximate 26" radius curve that I had to reluctantly install on the last passing siding. All is well.

Joe - Your description of a New York businessman fits right in with my observations over the years. After transplanting to Texas, they either mellow out or get canned since that attitude doesn't work here. It seems to be working in Washington though. Kudos for your persistence in decorating for Christmas.
Greg - Kinda neat that that old watering hole is still there. I assume that it was no longer a brothel when you visited 45 years ago. I'm hooked on the Kadee whisker couplers after getting some 15 or so years ago. So much easier to install than #5's.
Louis - Since you brought it up, I miss the posts of Milwaukee Road 113. He had quite a collection. Anger management is a good thing. Self-imposed internal stress is not good for the mind or body.
Curt - A most excellent job of detailing the printing company.

Nine months ago today, we learned of Eric's passing. I miss him greatly. RIP brother.
Everybody have an awesome day and a good upcoming weekend. True Veteran's Day is Sunday November 11.
 
Willie, I will let Jan (Milwaukee Road 113) know what you said, he will be glad to hear it. Jan is one of the finest people I have ever known, a true gentlemen.

Anger inside is like poison, let it go.

That reminds me of a song. Is that a collective "Oh no" I hear? No worries, it's not a Christmas song. :)

 
Time for me to go clean up the messes I have been making. I use to be so clean and efficient when I work, but no so much any more.

I won't worry about what I can't do, Instead I'll be thankful for what I can do.

Have a great day Everybody!

God Bless Us Everyone.
 
Fellers!!! It has been awhile! New babies are a handful. I haven't forgotten the hobby though. I have found some time to do some shopping. Made a decent score on eBay this past week. I scored three C&O cabeese for $14 including shipping. They more than likely aren't to prototype specs but they are good enough. Opens the door to run pre Chessie system at my choosing. Anyways all is well here in West Virginia. I hope everything going well for yall.
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Good morning everyone. 33 and mostly cloudy here. Snow missed us last night - stayed north of Springfield. Still forecasting upper teens for low tonight. It's going to be a hot cider evening, I believe, maybe with the fireplace going for the first time this season.

Terry - Thank you for keeping us on the non-political straight-and-narrow. And glad your wife will be okay.
Louis - Looks like your grandson had a fun and informative field trip.
Curt - Nice detailing on that printing company structure.

From the train room - just did a little more on the fencing and the ranger tower, and ran the trains for a few minutes.

Have a good day everyone.
 
Good morning, Happy Friday! 38° and the morning sun has been hidden by clouds. The usual admonition to "watch for flooding" has been posted.
Perhaps I can remove more leaves before the rain starts.

Louis: Never apologize. Your comments weren't any worse than any others. Rules are rules! Enforcement of rules is subjective. It is what it is.

* I liked the Orioles Orange Uniforms...thinking back, four twenty game winners on a pitching staff was awesome.

* Fort McHenry was a favorite place. I would go over there and sit by one of the batterys, stare out on the harbor and chill.

* Ailments and anger...it really sucks when one loses range of motion. It also becomes very frustrating when one is unable to do things that used to be second nature. As I grow older, I seem to be bothered more by little things, and it becomes difficult to avoid sources of irritation, without becoming totally isolated and immobile. As good as modern medical science is, it's useless if the provider is only interested in doing what generates more revenue. I have never finished wiring my layout because I can no longer scrunch down under the layout and run and splice wire like I need to do.

Willie: Some Internet providers shrink individual bandwidth during peak periods, especially those with limited infrastructure. That's why others report improvement when they change IPs. If you're like me and don't have any real alternative to the cable company, you learn to live with it. I supposedly have 200 MBPS service, but have never noticed more than 100 MBPS. The cable company's solution was to remove the application that measures internet speed from their web site. :rolleyes:

Going order some more KD couplers. I think I'll finally get some of the KD Whisker couplers. I been using up my current stock of KD #5's Converting the my fleet of ore cars with draw bars to couplers is using up my supply of couplers and I need to convert another 100 or so ore cars. I may link the cars together in groups of four to cut down on the number of couplers I'll need to purchase. We'll see...maybe I'll change my mind.

Greg: Man that's a lot of work changing all those couplers. I have found great success with the #153 short shank bulk packs from Kadee. It's the #58 scale coupler with short shank and whisker spring. Keeps everything close coupled, without problem when uncoupling.
BTW, what is a water bib?

Justin: Nice collection of Cabin Cars there. The baby will keep you busy.

MILW 113: Nice to see you post again.

Boris
 
Good morning everybody ... Coffee and a donut, please.

MILW 113 ... Good to see you.

Louis ... I always enjoy your posts with Lionel trains and with Baltimore history. :)

Justin ..... Did someone call Yellow Cab? ... Kidding..... Nice cabooses.... How is the new baby?.... and the rest of your family ?

Boris ... I enjoyed your Christmas decoration story.

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Good Morning - back in CA as of last eVENING. Today's high expected 81 with a blistering clear sky.
Thank you all for the "best wishes" for my furry child.
Yesterday's drive back was not pleasant - except for a fuel stop just short of the CA border to save close to 90 cents a gallon - we hot-footed it home with a "wounded" pup (who thankfully lay and slept on the floor) While Encountering a pretty healthy sand storm between the border and almost to Palm Springs.
Visibility was down to perhaps half a mile in places and the wind was dreadfully painful to drive in with gusts that wanted to push my RV box all over the road.

After a very stressful night because of my dozing a little at a time in order to keep Foxie from licking her wounds, we got her to the VET at Banfield in PEtsmart where they took her in immediately and examined by a very nice young lady doctor. She recommended that the wounds on her ear, hind leg, and outside of her left front shoulder be left to heal. She had another area on the inside of her left front leg -corresponding to the bite marks on the outside of same - had to have staples put in. We picked her up at 12 O;clock and headed for home. I was really impressed with the speed and professional conduct with the VET - hat's off and three cheers for them - and thankfully the bill was about 1/2 of what I was expecting. Poor girl now has to wear that stupid cone of shame so she does not lick at her wounds. I will give her a break from it when I can sit and watch her.

TERRY - Sorry to hear of your continued trials. Glad to hear that Marie was not injured and I hope that the machine gets repaired quickly! Too bad about the phone, but, damn, she should not have been had it in her hand. That could have been a real problem for all.

Chet likes rail photos - here is a couple that he can add to his collection! Looks as if some one stole one of the points.
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Good Morning Everyone.....overcast and about three inches of snow last night. The snow must have been sent from Chet's neck of the woods.

Slept in late and the Mrs. has a "To Do List" waiting for me so I'm delayed in getting down to the train room.

Boris: A water bib is the name for an outside water faucet that needs to be drained for winter and in our area or the water left in the faucet will freeze during the winter. We drain the water lines in the basement and then just keep the water turned off and the faucet open to keep the faucet from freezing and and the faucet casting breaking.

Louis: Other than the main cable line coming into the house I wired the entire house for six television and internet myself. When the cable provider changed to HD, we need HD converter boxes for each television. The company sent out a contractor to install the boxes. He said that my six way splitter was cheap and need to be replaced, but I would need to make another service appointment. He finally gave me a new splitter for me to install.

I told him I would discard all the empty boxes the HD converters came in and I found 4 or 5 new HDMI cables and regular coaxial cables.

Then our new HD 4K television didn't work well and a call to the cable company and another service call. It was problems with the main line coming in to the house and the tech also replaced the "old" splitter.

We changed cable providers and the tech that came out said he was a supervisor. He went into the basement said said most of the wiring needed to be replaced. I think he fell asleep in the basement and hours he later came back up and said he was done. He installed some new wiring, a six way splitter and a booster. Unfortunately, he left all the old wiring and damaged some ceiling tiles. The new splitter was installed on a new fascia that part of the finished basement. What a mess. Later today I plan on cutting out the old cable and removing remaining second splitter.

Willie: The working brothel is long gone, but the numerous small rooms on the second floor still remain. Near our cabin is a large Victorian house that once was a brothel for the lumber jacks.

Going to pass on this year's TrainFest on Saturday and Sunday.

On my trip to Du Plainville on Wednesday I saw 12 ore cars parked on siding. These critters seen better days. (Great weathering jobs on the cars.) The CN uses them to move limestone from Sussex to the steel mills in Indiana. One trip each day and they return at night.

Garry: Another great photograph of your layout. Don't talk about donuts. I'm on a diet and keep thinking about Dunkin Donuts and having a jelly filled and a glazed donut with cold milk. Will power at its best.

Better get to work on the "To Do List"!

Greg

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